A look at Ron Paul’s environmental platform and record

Update: Ron Paul dropped out of the presidential race on June 12, 2008.

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul doesn’t spend much time talking about the environment; when he does address the issue, it’s usually to say that our land, air, and water would be in better shape if the government butted out and let the free-market, private-property system run its course. Paul has represented Texas’s 14th district in the U.S. House of Representatives for the past decade, and he represented the 22nd district for about seven years in the ’70s and ’80s. In 1988, he ran for president as the Libertarian Party candidate. Paul’s lifetime voting score from the League of Conservation Voters is 29 percent.

Quotable Quotes

“Fear is constantly generated by politicians to rally the support of the people. Environmentalists go back and forth, from warning about a coming ice age to arguing the grave dangers of global warming.”

— June 29, 2006, in a speech before the U.S. House of Representatives.

Platform & Record In-Depth

Sponsor of the Affordable Gas Price Act, which would allow offshore drilling in U.S. waters, allow oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, exempt environmental impact statements conducted under the National Environmental Policy Act from judicial review, give more tax incentives for investing in oil refineries, and suspend the federal gasoline tax when retail gasoline prices hit $3 a gallon.

Cosponsor of legislation that would streamline the federal approval process for oil refinery construction or expansion.